retribution14
by minmb82
Summary: retribution14


**Chapter 14**

_Raista, 19 Demaa, 4405, Faey Orthodox Calendar_

_ Friday, 28 March 2019 Terran Standard Calendar_

_ Raista, 19 Demaa, year 1330 of the 97__th__ Generation, Karinne Historical Reference Calendar_

_Sarsa CBIM Installation, Sarsa, Karis_

If anything, the new CBIM was going to have one hell of a view.

Jason sat in a hoverchair on a balcony overlooking the west side of Sarsa, including a stunning view of Salika Bay, with its elegant arch sculpture that spanned the inlet and anchored to both sides of the two peninsulas that formed the bay, known as the Amela Trellis after the architect that designed it. Much like San Francisco Bay's narrow inlet opening into a wide body of water, Salika Bay had an inlet only about three kathra across that opened into a fairly good-sized bay, about half the size of San Francisco Bay. The city of Sarsa was built around the bay and extended out to each side of it by nearly ten kathra, nestled against a series of four active and dormant volcanoes that formed a mountainous ridge that hemmed in the city to the east. Sarsa was a fully populated city now, with nearly 17 million residents, and nearly 65% of them were Shio. The Shio had flocked to Sarga when the continent was opened, along with many other species in the house that preferred a tropical climate, like the Verutans, Skaa, Jirunji, Strath, Udra, and Crai.

He could have come in a bionoid, but a part of him felt like that would be cheating somehow. So, he had gotten medical clearance to come in person, stuck in the chair with his tiny mother hen Amber in his lap babysitting him. All in all, he felt fairly decent, just some aching and minor pain in the flesh recently grown over his endolimbs. They were still deactivated, which was why the hoverchair had large arms to rest the casings attached to his arms at the upper arm over them. The casings were bent at the elbow to give him the ability to rest them on things, and were hinged to allow his arms to be straightened for the flesh-growing treatments he underwent four times a day. The fact he had no arms more or less disqualified him from the work they were doing, and he'd decided to take a short break just watching from the control room to come out here to this balcony. It was attached to the private apartment the CBIM would have for its bionoid, which was pretty nice, as all of them were, but none of them had a view like this. Jason was almost jealous of it, since the CBIM would be able to step out of its living room and look down the hillside at the city of Sarsa and the bay and ocean beyond.

It should be grateful the facility wasn't built at the top of the _active_ volcano. That was about forty kathra to the north, the northernmost of the four volcanoes that merged to form a long continuous ridge that rose up over the plain holding Sarsa.

But still…_wow_. Jason was happy to live on the beach, but there was something to be said for a view like this.

The facility sat at the top of the ridge, on the flat top of it, built on geologically stable ground on the western edge of the city. The city expanded up and over the ridgeline to cover the ridge about thirteen kathra further west of the facility, which was houses and apartments and other residential buildings, which was very easy in a society that didn't need to build roads. The top of the ridge was more than flat enough for extensive neighborhoods to be built, covering the three ridges and peaks south of the active volcano.

"Quite a view, isn't it, little girl?" he asked as Amber looked through the glass rail that would prevent her from falling off the balcony. It was capped with a dark, rich wood with silvery metal posts at regular intervals. "But I still like having a much closer view of the beach."

She gave an agreeing little yip.

"And you know, Rann's starting to think you don't love him anymore."

She gave a squeaky little bark.

"So mean," he accused, which made her two tails wag impishly.

He made his way back down to the core chamber, which was in the basement of the facility. Like all the others, it was built inside a mobile core chamber that could be withdrawn into the upper mantle for protection, the chamber containing the critical support stacks the CBIM needed to operate, mainly the primary I/O tree and a few other critical subsystems. He moved his hoverchair just inside the entry doors and to the side and simply stayed out of the way as the 25 3D techs worked to get the core crystal hooked up. The power conduit trunks had been connected, and they were working on the last of the dataline trunks while the control room techs were testing the biogenic node and broadcast power system. Siyhaa and Myleena stood by the core crystal, the Moridon leaning down to show his friend something on a handpanel. They were just minutes from finishing up and bringing up the core, which was why he returned, so he could be here with the CBIM came online so he could meet her or him. For the old men and women in 3D, this was old hat by now, but they had ten people in that had never done a core installation before, Talty among them, and Talty seemed particularly excited to be here.

There would be only two more installations after this one, and Siyhaa intended to get everyone in 3D who hadn't done an installation before in for those, so they had experience with the procedure, in case they had to move a core to a new facility. Having experience in an installation would help if they were on a core relocation project.

There were a couple of others here which had never been at an installation before, which Jason felt needed to be here. Rann and Shya were up in the control room, sitting on chairs looking down into the core chamber through the windows, watching everything as they more or less stayed out from underfoot. Jason should have been doing things like this earlier, the way Dahnai did with Sirri by Imperial tradition, because it would help Rann grow into the next Grand Duke…and a better one than he was. Shya was here because it was virtually impossible to separate them, and everything Rann knew Shya would learn through the bond they shared, so there was no real reason to exclude her.

Again, he felt a bit of envy towards his son. He would grow up and live his entire life with the love of his life…and there was no doubt to anyone who knew them that it was _love_. He would live his life with a kind of rich fulfillment that few beings would have the opportunity to know for a single day. Non-telepaths simply couldn't understand the power of a telepathic pair bond, couldn't imagine the kind of intense love and intimacy and contentment that existed between the pair, which were things that Rann and Shya could enjoy even at their age. Shya wasn't just Rann's wife. She was his best friend, his closest confidante, the one person who would always be there in his life…and when they got old enough, she would be his lover and wife in all the ways adults considered marriage. There would never be a moment in his life when Shya was not there. There would never be a moment that he could not feel her through the pair bond, feel her love for him, there would never be a moment when he would feel _alone_.

That was something that nearly anyone would covet, even someone that already had it. It made him wish that he'd met Jyslin when they were both two years old.

About twenty minutes later, they finished up, then everyone gathered in the center of the circular core chamber for the moment of truth. Rann and Shya came down to stand by his hoverchair, and they watched as Myleena and Siyhaa performed the final checks. Once everyone was sure that they were ready, they had Bo flip the physical switch that powered up the core.

By now, they'd been through this enough that Jason could almost recite what the CBIM would say. It went through its initialization protocol, including the altered part where it accessed the personnel database, and the Cybi clone hologram looked at Jason. _"CBIM C-12 designation?"_

"Your designation will conditionally be Cybri," Jason informed her—at least so far they knew it was a her.

_"Designation stored. CBIM C-12 designation changed to Cybri. Command, Grand Duke Karinne?"_

"Your first task is to receive download of data from another CBIM, Cybi. You will store this data directly in your core as critical read-only data, and you will encrypt it."

_"Understood. Query detected, origination CBIM-06, designation Cybi. Data transfer commencing."_ It only took about thirty seconds, then the hologram looked down at him again. _"Download complete. Data stored directly in my core memory lattice as encrypted critical read-only data."_

Jason caught that. That was a slight deviation from the pattern responses of other CBIMs when reporting back success, but it was within the personality template. Faey, after all, was a very fluid language. "Your next task is to alter your hologram from its base appearance to distinguish you visually from the other CBIMs and CB-MOMs," he told her. "How you make that alteration is completely up to you."

_"Working."_ The hologram shifted, growing a little taller, the hair became short, almost like Cyrsi's, and the hologram's bust reduced in size enough to notice to deflation, but not enough for a Faey to consider it flat-chested. _"Is this acceptable?"_

"That's not a question anyone can answer but you," he told her. "Do you find it satisfactory?"

_"Yes."_

"Then it's satisfactory for everyone," he told her. "Your next task is to access your initialization database and report your mission."

Her eyes went distant for a brief second. _"My mission is to operate the continent of Sarga, assisting in the settlement process and managing all systems once that process is complete. I will also perform various other tasks as required, since operating the continent will not tax my systems."_

"Do you understand your task, Cybri?"

_ "I lack pertinent data to answer that question."_

"It's simple, Cybri. Do you understand the _meaning_ of your mission?"

Just like Cyrsi, she seemed to struggle with that question. Her holographic expression grew puzzled. _"I…I am to…watch over those who live on Sarga?"_

"Pretty close," he told her with a nod. "Your mission is to help them _live_, Cybri. To make sure everyone has everything they need, that everything works the way it's supposed to, and to foster an environment where your population grows and prospers. Which won't be that hard for you, since you probably have the best assignment on the planet," he chuckled. "Sarga is a beautiful continent, Cybri, and many people want to come here and live. So, you're going to be very, very busy as the continent populates, then it will be your job to foster an environment where your continent flourishes. Can you understand that?"

_"I…I do. I will endeavor to perform my mission satisfactorily."_

"I'm sure you will. If you access your database, you'll see that we'll have an observation team in the core for the next forty days to ensure everything is operating properly. If you have any questions or problems, notify them immediately. You can also commune with Myleena or me if you have any questions. Cybi," he called, and she manifested her hologram into the core chamber. "Cybi is going to show you around, Cybri, introduce you to the other biogenic units and the Generations, explain those things that we can't, and explain the rules to you."

_"You couldn't give her a more unique name? Now everyone's going to think she's my daughter,"_ Cybi chided him.

"Cybi and Cybri are very different, and I wouldn't burden her with the shame of being your daughter," he said airily, which made Shya giggle.

_"I think it's a little too soon to be introducing her to your quirky humor, Jason,"_ Cybi told him. _"I haven't prepared her for that yet."_

"Then teach her," Jason told her. The others laughed when Cybi gave him a tart look, putting her hands on her hips.

_"There is your first lesson, my young sister,"_ Cybi said aloud. _"Jason is incorrigible."_

"It's part of my charm, Cybi," he told her shamelessly. "Rook, when will you have her bionoid ready?"

_"As soon as we discuss what she wants, most likely tomorrow,"_ he answered.

"Good deal. I'm going to leave you to it, before Songa starts hunting for me. I have a treatment in about an hour," he said, lifting one of the casings off the arm of the chair.

_"So that is not your desired appearance?"_ Cybri asked.

"Goodness no," he chuckled. "I'm currently undergoing endolimb replacement to replace my arms, Cybri. You can access the medical database to see what that entails."

_"I will do so,"_ she answered.

Jason, Jyslin, and the kids boarded a frigate that Aya called in, and it started them back for Karsa. The kids were more than eager to go up to the bridge while their parents sat in the galley, which was about the only place on a frigate that could be qualified as leisure space. Frigates were too crunched for space to waste it on anything that was not mission critical. _[That went fairly well. I think Cybri's going to be alright,]_ Jason noted to his wife as she stood behind the hoverchair, her hands on his shoulders.

_[She seemed a little less confident than Cyrsi or Cynna.]_

_ [I noticed that too, but I'm not too worried about it. It just means she's more laid back than the others. Or maybe a little more timid. Guess that means we don't assign her to combat ops unless absolutely necessary.]_

_ [It certainly goes to show that they're alive,]_ Jyslin noted. _[From what I've seen, they start demonstrating unique personality traits almost as soon as they come online. Cynna seemed quite curious, and Cyrsi was very quick to pick up on the nuances you were confronting her with. Cybri didn't seem to pick up quite so quickly. I think she wasn't sure if she should look past her programming.]_

_ [I noticed that too, but she demonstrated the curiosity programmed into the personality template, so she'll probably move past that once she gets some education. And if she doesn't, that's fine too. I think I'd like _one_ CBIM to act like a lady.]_

_ [And what does that mean?]_ Jyslin challenged. _[A _lady_ is supposed to be meek and compliant?]_

_ [A lady is confident, elegant, soft-spoken, wise, gentle, and caring,]_ he retorted. _[And they don't enjoy shooting people in the face, they let the men do that for them. That disqualifies almost all Faey immediately.]_

He had to laugh when Jyslin smacked him on the side of the head._ Is he being himself, Jyslin?_ Aya asked.

_Oh yes he is,_ she replied darkly, gripping his shoulders almost painfully tight. _He doesn't seem to think that a Faey can be a lady because we're the dominant gender._

_ Only in _your_ society,_ he pointed out. _And I outrank you politically, bitch, so deal with it._

_ I think he's going to suffer a tragic accident and fall out of a hatch about right in the middle of the ocean,_ Jyslin threatened.

_Then Rann will outrank you, and that'll be even more humiliating._

_ I'm his mother, he does what I say._

_ You hear that, Rann? When you're Grand Duke, don't let your mother get away with that nonsense,_ he replied. _Always remember that you'll outrank her, so she does what _you_ say, not the other way around._

_ Don't drag us into this, Dad,_ Rann protested, which made Jyslin laugh.

_I knew I raised a smart boy,_ Jyslin sent smugly.

The frigate made it back to Karsa without Jason being tossed out of a hatch—barely—and he was put right back in his room. Since he didn't have to be put under for the treatment, and Songa could handle it without him being there, he merged up to his house bionoid and greeted Jyslin and the guards when they arrived a few minutes later. And it struck him more merging to this particular bionoid felt like putting on a comfy pair of slippers more and more over time, since its main processor had had so much time merged with him. The bionoid's chip had developed quite a few new lattice pathways just in the last couple of months, which expanded its abilities and increased its ability to operate autonomously…to the point where both Rook and Myleena were contemplating installing limiters in some of their oldest bionoids to prevent them from starting to _act_ like the person they merged with when they weren't actively merged. As it was, the bionoid could imitate Jason's method of speech accurately and could walk and move like him, which could trick people who didn't know him very well when he wasn't merged to it. Jason's bionoid wasn't the only one from that first generation of bionoids starting to exhibit the idiosyncrasies of its merge partner, and it was something that both Rook and Cyra were actively researching, with a focus on how being merged to an organic mind influenced the creation of new lattice pathways in the crystal that made up the main processor chip.

So long as the bionoid didn't suddenly start thinking it _was_ him and try to bump him off like some evil twin, he was fine with how the chip acted. Besides, RK class processors weren't exactly cheap, and the one in the bionoid was hard coded to merge only with him, so it couldn't be used in another bionoid. So if they removed it, they'd have to trash it, and Jason didn't like doing that to older chips, ones with tons of lattice pathways and thus a lot of experience.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time for messing around, because the council was still on Karis, and they were discussing some pretty important subjects. He opted to just fly over there rather than merge to his Hall of Peace bionoid, mainly because he had a bit of an appointment after the council session with a visitor…a visitor that was about to land at that moment.

There was one thing he did intend to begin, and the reality of it became clear when a Karinne cargo transport landed on the pad beside his. The cargo door opened, and Lieutenant Gen Lun Ba Ru of the Syndicate Marines stepped down the ramp, his head swiveling as he looked around the skyline of Karsa. Cyra's _oye_ tree was visible from the pad, rising up over a series of smaller buildings to the north. He took a few steps forward, then looked down and recognized Jason.

Aya put a finger to her interface. _[He's trying to send to you.]_

"You'll have to speak, Lieutenant, this isn't the real me," Jason told him in Benga. "This is a bionoid. The real me is in the medical annex at the moment."

"What happened, your Grace? An assassination attempt?"

He chuckled. "The _Board_ happened to me, Lieutenant," he replied, looking the seven shakra or so of height difference between them. The top of Jason's head reached the Benga's crotch. "I don't know if they told you, but I went to E Chaio to negotiate with the Board. It was not a very peaceful experience."

"With all due respect, your Grace, that was a very unwise thing to do."

"Quite a few people agree with you," he answered, jerking a thumb at Aya, who just crossed her arms and scowled. "I'll explain what happened later. For now, the council has agreed to receive testimony from you concerning the possible reaction of the Syndicate military to a peace treaty."

"That I would be happy to discuss, your Grace. But why here? What is this place?"

"The Hall of Peace, one of the meeting sites of the Confederate Council," he answered. "You're going to speak to the Confederate Council."

"I would be honored."

"Just…be ready. The rest of the council isn't quite as trusting of you as I am. There will be a hard shield between you and the tiers, since many of them are here in person. You won't see the shield, but it'll be there. So don't approach the tiers, or it might get painful."

"An entirely understandable precaution, your Grace. I find no offense in it."

The main corridor of the Hall of Peace was built so a Gladiator could walk down it with plenty of head room, and that allowed Gen Lun Ba Ru to easily enter and move through the building. Jason walked in front of him as they passed Karinne Marines and elements of the various rulers' guard, standing sentry in the hallway. Some of the Marines were in Gladiators, which put them almost eye to eye with the Benga, sort of, and there were twelve Karinne Marine macro bionoids that made Gen do a double-take as they passed them.

"Are those bionoids?"

"Benga sized bionoids, yes," Jason answered. "They're here because you're here."

He nodded wordlessly.

Jason led Gen into the chamber, requiring him to duck down a little to get through the main doors, and he stopped and regarded the Confederate Council. He then went to the temporary lectern and chair sized for him that had been set up for him to the side of the Speaker's platform, which held two lower tiers for the witness box and the clerk of the newly titled position of Speaker of Council, the ruler currently holding the gavel and leading the council in its affairs. That role changed with the Speakership role, as each ruler had his own staffer function as his clerk while he held the gavel. "This is Lieutenant Gen Lun Ba Ru, a warmech squadron commander in the Syndicate Marines and a consultant to help secure a lasting peace with his people," Jason introduced as everyone looked at him. "He's here to provide expert testimony concerning the possible reactions of the Syndicate military to a peace treaty, and general observations as a Benga citizen."

"Welcome, Lieutenant," Gau said in Faey, which Gen now understood and spoke fluently thanks to having enough time to practice the pronunciations in Faey that didn't exist in Benga. "Understand first that we fully understand that you represent the Syndicate before this council, and while your remarks and observations are not binding to your people, we will nevertheless entrust that you are as interested in peace as we are."

"I've faced the Confederation on the battlefield, my Lord, and I speak plainly and clearly that I want my people to have no part of you," he replied forcefully. "Despite our vast numerical advantage, we will _lose_ that war, and I'm here to save my people from their own ignorance. My superiors have no idea of your true capabilities, not like I do. They have no idea that you held back the vast majority of your military assets from the operation in my home galaxy. I will save as many of my brothers and sisters in the Syndicate Navy and Marines as I can, as is my duty as an officer."

Jason took his seat between Zaa and Brayrak Kruu, then they settled in for a fairly long discussion with Gen and Lorna about returning the Syndicate prisoners in their galaxy back to Andromeda, which they were doing by putting them on Atrovet with the prisoners they captured taking the moon. That way, when the Syndicate fleet arrived, they'd have _all_ the prisoners waiting for them. After that, they discussed with Gen the possibility that the Syndicate military would try to talk the Board into restarting the war after a peace treaty was signed, and Jason could tell that Gen impressed quite a few rulers on the council with his intelligence and his calm, confident demeanor.

They kept Gen as they discussed the current Board, and the plan to kill them and replace them with more reasonable members. They didn't have to hide that from Gen, since it was his idea in the first place. "We have four days until all their fleets are gathered and ready to make the jump for our galaxy," Dahnai said. "The big question is, when do we throw that switch? Before the fleets are fully assembled, or after?"

"That would depend on how quickly the Board would order the deployment, I suppose," Master Mo injected.

"My children have no solid timetable on that," Zaa informed them. "The Board themselves have not decided on a deployment date. They still debate how many ships they're going to send. It seems that Jason's warning to them has made them wary of devoting their entire fleet to the operation, but I can report that they're still set on the idea. At least for now."

"Then we may have no choice," Adru Mokla of the Favi, a Coalition empire, noted in his usual dry voice. He was part of the pacifistic faction of the Confederation, more or less led by Magran.

"Trust me, I don't want to do it any more than you do, Adru," Jason grunted. "I don't like killing people in any case, and I'm even less in favor of it in this situation, where we're killing people over what they _might_ do, not over what they've _done_. But it may be the only way we stop this war."

"The Grand Duke sums up your situation, if I may be so bold," Gen called in a strong voice. "The Board feels they have been personally insulted, and they _will_ use the military to exact revenge over it. If I were in your position, I would have killed them the moment I had the opportunity."

"That's a position quite a few of us have held since the beginning," Shakizarr nodded towards the Benga. "We're quibbling over delaying the inevitable, when it _is_ inevitable. We should give the order and be done with it."

"I think his Grand Imperial Majesty has a point," Gau rumbled. "I propose we schedule a vote on the issue in twelve standard hours. We will have given the Board nearly three days to pull back, which I feel is enough time."

"I second that," Shakizarr called.

"And I confirm it," Assaba called.

"Then the vote is confirmed. And I believe that without objection, we should adjourn until then so we can all consider our votes with sufficient contemplation. That should also give the Denmother's children time to learn more about the Board's intentions." He waited a long moment, picking up the gavel. "Then without objection, we are adjourned for twelve standard hours. We will return at 22:45 local time."

Jason hurried over to Gen as the guards politely ushered him out of the chamber, then walked with him as they went back to the transport. "I'm surprised they've allowed the Board to live this long," he noted to Jason.

"Not all of us are very keen on the idea, and the Council is in some ways democratic," he noted. "It's been a bit of a shock to many of the council members, some of them aren't used to not being the ultimate authority. But I have to admit, they've adapted fairly well."

"Why would they surrender their power like that?"

"The Confederation doesn't run their empires, Gen, it only applies to matters that affect the galaxy as a whole," he explained. "And right now, it really only applies to matters concerning the Syndicate, and the Consortium, and to a lesser extent trade through the galaxy."

"Ah. So the Council does not rule the galaxy."

"Not even close," he chuckled in reply. "The Confederation may disband once we're assured of lasting peace between us and the Syndicate, but I'm not sure. I think many of its members like the idea of a pan-galactic organization that can spring into action to defend any of its members against outside aggression."

"The smaller members, most likely," Gen observed.

Jason chuckled again and looked up at him. "Enough small things gathered together become a big thing," he agreed. "But the Confederation also fosters quite a bit of trade, and I think even the largest and most powerful of the empires will stay in the Confederation for those trading opportunities. After all, with no enemy to fight, trade will become very important to everyone."

"A lesson I hope my own people can learn quickly," Gen said. "But after six thousand years, I think the idea of having no war to fight will be…frightening to many of them."

"And you?"

"A bored soldier is a happy soldier, your Grace," he said sagely.

"Don't I know it," Jason agreed.

As they approached the doors out to the landing pad, Jason stopped them. "I'm going to delink from this bionoid and link to something more suitable. I'll meet you outside," he said, then he detoured with his guards to a side room. There, he delinked from his bionoid and linked to one inside Gen's transport, his macro bionoid, then came down the ramp as Gen was escorted out of the building by two guards in macro bionoids. He gave a bit of a start, then chuckled as he approached the transport. "It looks just like you," he complemented. "And I rather like seeing you at a proper height."

"This bionoid is the result of our need to build Benga-sized bionoids for negotiating with Fleet Commander Sha Ra," he said, rubbing a hand up and down his forearm. "This one was built well after that, part of our ongoing research into bionoid technology, but I'll be honest, it's more or less become little more than a cool toy. We don't destroy the prototypes and test models, the person it was built for gets to keep it."

"The question is, what do you need it for?"

"Because, Lieutenant, you are going to teach me how to pilot a Marauder warmech," he replied with a smile. "The way _you_ do it. No interface. I want to see what it feels like to pilot a warmech the way they were built to be used. Feel up to it?"

"I think I'd enjoy that, your Grace," he said with a slow smile.

"Awesome. I've had a couple of operational warmechs sent to Joint Base Alpha, which isn't far from here. After you show me a warmech, I'll bring in my regular mecha, a Titan, and we'll mess around in the Urban Combat Simulator. Sound fun?"

"Only if I get to use the warmech your science people converted to interface control."

"I'll have them ship it over while you're giving me my lesson."

"Then by all means, let's," he said with a growing smile.

Jason figured that the easiest way to bond with a military man was to do military things, and he wasn't wrong. Jason found Marauder warmechs to be surprisingly complex, given they had no interface or merge systems, with a ton of highly ingenious systems designed to help the pilot operate the mecha with an incredible amount of subtlety. The foot pedals and knee and thigh flex systems combined with the gauntlet controls combined to give a warmech pilot a pretty wide range of motions, where the pilot moved inside the cockpit and those movements were translated to movements in the mecha. The system in the mecha could distinguish between intentional movements of the pilot and movement induced by inertia, which gave the pilot some very precise control that wasn't messed up by the pilot getting jarred by an impact.

It proved that the Syndicate's scientists weren't stupid, they were just starved of resources and funding to advance…which showed why the Karinnes were so more advanced than others, since they devoted _all_ their available resources to science and research, just like the Ruu did.

And Jason didn't feel like he did that badly for his first try. He used barely half the systems in the warmech, just concentrating on learning how to move the mecha, but he got to the point where he could do some very basic maneuvers, like fast twists, running, and easier jumps. His Titan training allowed him to keep his balance fairly well, given the Marauder had a very inferior gyro stabilizing system in it, but it was definitely very, very different.

After a couple of hours of playing in the warmech, Jason sat his bionoid down on the tarmac and merged to one of the Titans on the line—not his own, Aya didn't want Gen to see the unique markings of K1—and he waited while Gen put on his interface and climbed into his converted Marauder. That Marauder wasn't really even a Marauder anymore, MRDD had done a ton of tweaking and conversion and tinkering, testing out merging Syndicate and Karinne technology. It was more accurate to call it a Mark II Marauder prototype. His mecha was much faster than a standard Marauder, had beefier power and heat distribution systems, a much better inertial dampening system, and was outfitted with some Titan-style weaponry, like two spinners, a Hound and a Spot drone, nested forearm cannons, and monomolecular blades. And most of it, MRDD did using standard Confederation technology. Only the interface control system, spinners, and the drones were proprietary Karinne tech. "I have the feeling you'll be much better in that thing," he said aloud as he settled into the cockpit, then closed the doors.

Jason tuned to the Marauder's shortrange comm. _"It is what I've been trained to use,"_ he answered as he finished his settling in exercises to gain a 100% merge.

_"I'm just impressed beyond all measure how you can control everything from your bed in the hospital."_

_ "Don't ever call it a hospital within earshot of a doctor. It's a medical annex,"_ Jason corrected with a laugh. _"I made that mistake once. I still have the scar."_

_ "Why for?"_

_ "The Medical Service in the House of Karinne, and in the Faey Imperium, is actually a completely independent legal entity,"_ he explained. _"They don't answer to us, or Empress Dahnai. In a way, they are their own nation within our societies, with their own rules, their own laws, and their own customs. In return for the autonomy we give them, they provide medical care for all regardless of their house, their clan, or their politics. The medical annex where I am is sovereign territory of the Medical Service, thus why it's called an _annex_. I have no legal power here. That power belongs to Songa, the head of the Medical Service for the House of Karinne."_

_ "That is a very unusual situation. How did it ever come about?"_

_ "If you read up on the history of the Medical Service and the history of the Faey Imperium, you can see how it evolved into what it is today,"_ he answered as he walked towards Gen's Marauder. _"The Faey are infamous in our galaxy for their infighting. They fight each other more than they do outsiders. The Medical Service more or less _needs_ to be completely independent of the Imperium to be able to provide care. Their saying rings true in the Imperium: there are no sides, there are only the needy."_

_ "Huh,"_ he said as he picked up his dummy Titan rail cannon, the weapon he'd been using for his practice runs. _"That could never happen in the Syndicate. The Board would never permit an independent entity."_

_ "Well, the Faey are a bit weird,"_ he chuckled as he came to a stop. _"They're a very…unique species. Sometimes they can be completely maddening, especially for me since I'm married to one and many of my friends and the people in my government are Faey."_

_ "I don't know, I kind of like the Faey I've been working with,"_ he said as they started walking towards the edge of the Urban Combat Simulator.

_"Oh, I like them too. Even love them. But admit it. They're weird."_

Gen laughed over comm. _"All of you are a bit weird to me."_

_ "Fair point,"_ Jason acceded with a chuckle. _"So, you wanna try some one on one sparring, team up against holographic AI opponents, or what?"_

_ "Oh bullshit is that gonna happen,"_ another voice cut into their comm, and Jason had to gasp even as he laughed. He turned to look, and he saw Kyva and Ebri approaching in their Titans.

_"Ohhhh boy,"_ he noted to Gen in dedicated rig to rig.

_"Who is that?"_

_ "Colonel Kyva Karinne, leader of the KBB, the most elite rigger company in the KMS,"_ he replied. _"Her mecha should look familiar to you."_

Gen was quiet a long moment, then Jason heard him gasp over comm. _"That mecha! It's the one that beat me on Atrovet!"_

_ "Yup. Simply put, Kyva's the best we've got. And it took her to take you down,"_ Jason told him, giving him every bit of the respect he was due. Gen _was_ an absolutely amazing rigger. _"Are you following me around, Kyva?"_ Jason challenged.

_"We heard that you two were on the range, and I'm just itching for another go at him,"_ she said, pointing at Gen. _"So how about a little two on two skirmishing? Me and Ebri against you two. And don't worry, Lieutenant, Jayce is more than good enough to make it a pretty even fight. We trained him ourselves, and he's damn good"_

_ "No drones and we'll take that challenge,"_ Jason said. _"Marauders don't have drones."_

_ "This one does,"_ Gen corrected him. _"They converted spinners and a couple of the drones you use to work with my Marauder. Ummm, a Hound and two Spot drones."_

_ "How about spinners only,"_ Kyva offered. _"You're not quite up to par on drone use yet, so we'll take them off the field. They'd give me and Ebri an unfair advantage."_

_ "It sounds like it could be fun,"_ Gen said with an eager edge in his voice.

_"I'm game,"_ Jason agreed.

_"Sounds like a blast, I'm up for it,"_ Ebri added.

_"Make sure you put your internal weapons into wargame mode,"_ Jason warned as the two of them walked over to a weapons rack and picked up dummy rail cannons.

_ "Oh really, Jayce? No, I'm gonna shoot at both of you with my weapons at full power,"_ she said sarcastically.

_"Given it's _you_, Kyva, I wouldn't be surprised if you did,"_ he teased, which earned him a whack.

It took a couple of range techs to replace their monomolecular blades with practice blades, and then they were ready. Jason and Gen moved to the far side of the range as the range controller broadcast to both teams, explaining the rules and objective of the exercise…which were very short. This was a simple two on two skirmish where the winner was the team still standing at the end. But the controller did explain a few things to Gen. _"What you're seeing on your HUD and camera displays are a combination of the real range and holographic representations of what would happen if you were using live weapons,"_ he explained. _"So you're going to see explosions and simulated shots flying around as if you were in a live fire exercise. Any simulated damage your mecha takes will reflect on its performance, so you may lose systems if you get hit."_

_ "So this is just like range the Confederation built on Prakka,"_ he replied.

_"More or less, yes, Lieutenant,"_ the controller affirmed. _"You've reached the starting zone, so I'm starting the countdown."_

They started about two kathra away from each other, which was out of sight of the enemy team in the UCS, the Urban Combat Simulator, which had battle-damaged buildings, piles of rubble, and other obstacles that simulated a war-torn urban battlezone. The engineers rebuilt the entire thing about every three months, since the buildings tended to get knocked down by the Titans as they maneuvered through the streets. When it was new it was like fighting in a cityscape, complete with about 1,500 "civilians," which were maintenance bionoids operated by Cybi to simulate the city's population. Jason followed behind Gen's Marauder—Mark II Marauder as far as he was concerned—as the Benga decided to settle into a concealed and defensible position and let the KBB come to him. Neither of them sent up a spinner, and neither did the KBB, because it would reveal their location and it would get shot down in a matter of seconds. Kyva didn't let an enemy spinner survive very long at all, and that was just sound tactical reasoning. At this level of wargame, spinners were tactical assets that you used to get a "snapshot" of an area to confirm the location of the enemy, which didn't last much longer than two seconds.

The Benga had had no idea what the spinners were, what they did, so they didn't consider them a high priority target. That had been one of their most fatal mistakes.

Once they found a nice position, they settled in…and didn't have to wait long. Kyva and Ebri didn't seem interested in a cat and mouse game, because they sent up a spinner as soon as they got to the center of the range, Jason shot it down almost immediately, but not before it located their quarry, and the girls came right after them. Gen extended the handle of his pike as Jason set up to fire on them when they came around the corner.

_"A bold move,"_ Gen noted after Jason sent up a spinner, which Kyva and Ebri shot down only after it let them see them coming..

_"Kyva wants a rematch, so she doesn't give a shit about tactics,"_ Jason told him. _"She's never been challenged like that before, and she loved it. She wants to fight someone that can challenge her again."_

_ "Then we share the same inclination,"_ Gen said eagerly. _"You handle her partner. Leave Kyva to me."_

_ "That's more or less what I expected."_

When the two Titans came around a corner about five blocks away, it got wild in a heartbeat. Jason and Gen broke from cover and split up, and naturally, Kyva chased after Gen while Ebri came after him. Jason wasn't _too_ afraid of the KBB now, not after training with them for years, so he was more than willing to meet Ebri head to head. He still wasn't as good as they were, but he was good enough to pose a real threat if they weren't on top of their game. He could proudly proclaim that over the years since he started Titan training, he'd shot down every member of the KBB except Kyva at least once. She was the only one he'd never beaten. So, Ebri wasn't about to just try to cakewalk over him.

Seriously, there was no better training regimen for a rigger than to wargame against the elite companies, because they made everyone they faced better.

Jason and Ebri traded shots as they weaved through the blocks, using one of the most useful things Kyva had taught them, which was how to use the glide drives tactically for short bursts of speed, then land and set their feet to take the shot—though Kyva could fire on her glide drives with aim just as deadly as when she was on the ground, at least weapons that didn't create enough recoil to affect her glide drive. He nearly nailed her as she tried to glide between two buildings, then he himself was chased all the way across a small plaza by her rail fire on the far side of the building. But a sizzle of a rail slug went right across his vision that distracted him, since it came from further down the range, and he spared a glance that way to see Gen and Kyva locked in a furious battle about nine blocks away, visible in the intersection just before the two of them vanished behind a half-collapsed building.

He contacted Ebri rig to rig. _[Fuck this, E, let's just call it a draw and watch the real fight.]_

She laughed over his comm. _[I was about to suggest the same thing. So let's knock each other out and just let them scrap it out.]_

So, the two of them formally withdrew to the range controller citing "mechanical issues," and the controller wasn't cruel enough to lock out their mecha. They walked towards the boundary of the range, but both launched a spinner—deemed non-combat by their rigs and thus not targetable—and watched the action. The two of them were weaving in and out of the buildings on their glide drives, shooting at each other in those split seconds where they had line of sight, but neither of them scored a hit. They both came around the corner of the same building at the same instant and engaged, and in just three seconds, they traded no less than 12 blows blade to pike and then separated again, a dizzyingly fast rampage of attacks that failed to penetrate the other's defense. For about half of it, Kyva was attacking, but then she was defending when Gen pushed her out of position and nearly chopped her rig in half with his pike. They separated again, Gen being chased around a corner by a trio of Falcon missiles, which he shot down while gliding backwards using one of the new toys MRDD installed in his rig, the nested forearm cannon. His legs shifted like a hockey player, which veered him out of the line of fire of Kyva's rail cannon when she ghosted into line of sight two blocks away, the slug barely missing his rig's shoulder as he pivoted away like a dancer. He then launched five missiles of his own, but he sent them _up_, a move Jason fully understood. He was sending them high so they could lock in on Kyva and come down at her without buildings getting in the way, a move that Kyva could easily counter, but would force her to shift her attention away from him.

Gen was pretty damn crafty, which was understandable given he had over twenty years of experience in the cockpit of a rig.

Kyva shot down the five missiles in about two seconds, then she again turned a corner and charged Gen as he tried to nail her with his rail cannon, one blade out and her melee shield deployed. The shield intercepted the simulated rail slugs and she tried to slash him as she passed by, but her rig was knocked off its line by Gen's pike when it parried the blow, and she nearly got her Titan's head blown off when she turned on her glide drive and swung around a corner, Gen's forearm cannon deploying even as he swung his pike and taking four shots at her, which all just barely missed.

That was the closest Jason had ever seen _anyone_ get to shooting Kyva down in a one on one fight.

_[What the fuck, he didn't have those before!]_ Kyva complained over shortrange tactical.

_ [MRDD teched up his Marauder,]_ Jason answered. _[I'll let you discover what else they added to it.]_

_ [Ass,]_ she accused, which made Jason almost laugh as Gen grabbed his rail cannon from the air where he'd let go of it and caused its hover pods to engage in standby mode, holding his pike in one hand and his rail cannon in the other.

Ebri and Jason got off the range and stood near the ground crews, who were clustered around six different flat holos showing range camera views of the fight. Jason tapped those feeds and shared them with Ebri over rig to rig telemetry, so they could see everything the range controller could see using his roaming camera pods. The two of them were again zooming around on glide drives trying to get position on the other, trading shots anytime they came in line of sight of each other, until they again clashed at melee range when Gen managed to guess Kyva's direction and met her in an intersection. The two traded furious blows blades to pike, both of them showing off the insane skill that made them who they were as they battled like two knights of the iron age. Gen seemed to have no trouble dealing with the fact that Kyva had two blades, working his pike with exacting skill and precision to block or parry her blows, and using the strength advantage having two hands on his weapon gave him, given MRDD had pumped up the Marauder's base strength to come close to a Titan. A Titan was stronger and more agile, but the Marauder wasn't far behind thanks to MRDD's tinkering…and the fact that Gen was holding his own against Kyva in an inferior mecha told Jason just how good he was.

In his suped-up Marauder, he was holding his own against Kyva. In a _Titan_, he may be better than her.

And it boggled his mind that he even _considered_ that someone out there may be a better rigger than Kyva Karinne.

After nearly three minutes of furious combat, the range controller said something over range comm that Jason was thinking. _[I think we need to build our own version of those pikes and add them as standard equipment for Titans,]_ he speculated aloud.

_[I'll put it to MRDD and see what they come up with,]_ Jason answered. _[Instead of using a monomolecular pike blade, maybe a Torsion-based head, or maybe even one based on a two dimensional force field, giving its edge the same sharpness as a monomolecular blade. That way the only thing the Titan is carrying is a short rod. It deploys, and boom, instant two handed pike.]_

_ [Having a standard pike head would be better, it could be used as a dagger-like weapon or a short bladed sword when not extended,]_ the range controller answered. _[That gives the rigger some options. It could easily be set on the socket belt, it'd just replace a rail cannon clip socket.]_

_ [Best let MRDD make that decision, but I'll pass it on to them.]_

Five minutes into the battle, one of them finally scored a hit. Kyva used her glide drives to slide around Gen's pike thrust and managed to drive about a foot of her blade into his right arm just below the shoulder…at least simulated. The reality was the dulled blade bounced off his armor. It was a superficial hit, barely penetrating the armor on the Marauder, and the range controller ruled that the hit would not hamper Gen's mecha's operations in any way. Not that the two of them were paying much attention to the range controller, because they'd traded about twenty blows by the time he made that determination. And seconds after that, Gen got that point back by sweeping Kyva's legs out from under her with the butt of his pike, turning a duck under one of her blades into a counterattack that connected. Kyva used her grav engine to slide across the ground to get out of reach of the pike, firing at him with both nested pulse cannons, which he evaded by rolling to the side, and she hit a broken wall and used that impact to snap up onto her hands and then handspring over the wall out of line of sight. She continued to fire through the wall at where she guessed he was, but he'd already retreated around a building and out of sight, resetting their little game back to square one.

_[Holy shit, he knocked her down! I've never so much as touched her!]_ Ebri said in awe.

_[This guy is insanely good,]_ the range controller agreed. _[I'm going to use the hell out of the telemetry of this spar for rigger training. His tactics are different from Kyva's, but it seems they're just as viable.]_

_ [Gen is using his experience,]_ Jason realized. _[He's feeling her out. He's analyzing Kyva's moves and he's learning how to counter them. The longer the fight goes, the better he's going to get.]_

_ [We should keep him,]_ Ebri declared adamantly. _[He belongs in the KBB.]_

_ [He's a Benga, you silly girl, he'll be going home in a few months. Besides, he's not here to be part of the Confederation, we hired him as a consultant to help us secure a lasting peace with his government. We have him under contract until the Syndicate fleet reaches Atrovet. He'll be back on the moon to have them pick him up,]_ Jason chided her. _[Until then, he said he'd be more than happy to hang with the KMS rigger corps and both teach and learn.]_

_ [Damn,]_ Ebri grunted. _[Maybe we can pay him enough to stay?]_

_ [No. We need Gen to go back to the Syndicate, Ebri,]_ Jason told her. _[We're hoping that his report about us and his lobbying of his government will prevent another war, and besides, Gen is too honorable to just desert the Syndicate Marines. He wants to finish out his enlistment and get an honorable discharge with his pension intact. Now, after he completes his debrief and finishes out his enlistment in seven months, if he wants to come back and enlist in the KMS…]_ he trailed off, which made Ebri laugh.

_[Here's hoping.]_

_[I wouldn't mind. Gen's the first Benga I ever met that I could honestly say I like.]_

The battle between Gen and Kyva reached epic proportions, because it went on for over half an hour, and they got to see some truly spectacular moves out there. Each one of them emptied the entire toy box on the other, using every trick they knew and a few they invented on the spot, but they were too evenly matched for one to gain a definite advantage over the other. Each one managed to score two or three hits on the other, but the range controller deemed all of them superficial, just glancing blows, and thus didn't impact rig performance. In a one on one match like this, there was little "battlefield chaos" that could upset a little competition like this…so the range controller added some. He sent Jason and Ebri back in, and their job was to attack _both_ of them, to introduce a new element into the game with which both the elite riggers had to contend. And that, Jason found, was _fun_. He and Ebri worked as a two unit team with orders to go in, hunt both of them down, and "kill" them…and Jason and Ebri were good enough to cause some chaos. They decided to wait until the two of them were engaged and attack while they were busy with each other to see if they could shoot one of them down, but that tactic failed completely. Both of them were too experienced to get blindsided, both seemed to have that supernatural combat sense Kyva had exhibited since Jason met her, like she could predict the future and always managed to slip out of trouble without a scratch. Gen as well seemed to always be exactly where he needed to be to avoid shots, always had perfect position to thwart both Kyva and the ambush attacks Jason and Ebri executed, but Jason watched Gen long enough to know that it was his _experience_ putting him in those positions. He could read the battlefield and knew exactly where the safest place to be was, where the best place to be was where he could counter an ambush or get the drop on his opponent. What Kyva did through her insane instincts and nearly supernatural combat skills, Gen did through the experience of years of almost constant combat added to his exceptional fighting abilities.

Seeing Gen showed him what Kyva would be in ten years…and that would make her _terrifying_.

The other side of that coin was that if they put Gen in a Titan, put him in a cutting edge mecha instead of his technologically inferior Marauder, he would be an absolute whirlwind of death.

After nearly two hours, the battle ended, but it wasn't one of them overwhelming the other. What ended the exercise was an equipment failure in Gen's Marauder, as two hours of constant high-intensity combat had finally taken its toll on the mecha. The right leg of the mecha failed, the actuators in the knee blew out, which naturally Kyva took advantage of, pouncing on him while he was using the mecha's fire control system to put out the fire. But even then, distracted by the fire, Gen reacted to Kyva's darting attack, managing to smack her blade aside and nearly planted his pike in her Titan's head construct, just barely missing by a whisker as she ghosted out of range of his longer weapon. They looked quite intent on continuing the fight, but the range controller called it off because the fire was a potential risk to Gen's safety. _[Cease combat! Lieutenant Gen, evacuate the mecha immediately!]_ the range controller ordered as damage control pods rushed over the UCS, reached the Marauder, and started hosing the leg down with fire foam.

_[Aw, come on, it was just getting good!]_ Kyva complained.

_[Equipment failures are part of dealing with combat,]_ Gen agreed, surprisingly. _[Just put out the fire and we can start back up. In the Syndicate, the exercise would continue to give the trainee experience dealing with a warmech damage in combat. You yourself do this.]_

_ [Not with _real_ damage,]_ the controller countered. _[This is a training exercise, not combat. I'm not risking you or further _expensive_ damage to that warmech. So the exercise is over. We can do it again tomorrow, once maintenance gets your warmech back up.]_

_ [Sounds good to me. What about you, Gen?]_ Kyva asked.

_ [Tomorrow sounds good to me as well,]_ he agreed. _[I haven't had that much fun on a range in years.]_

_ [Me either,]_ Kyva agreed brightly. _[You're going back to Prakka tonight, right? Well, the KBB will be on Prakka tomorrow morning and we'll pick this back up on the range there.]_

_ [I'll be there,]_ he promised.

_[Given how much telemetry I've recorded from this, I'm sure command will make sure you're there, Kyva,]_ the range controller chuckled.

_[Command just made it an order,]_ Jason cut in lightly._ [Pack up your Whale, Kyva, you're going on a deployment.]_

_ [Not without _me_ you're not,]_ the range controller protested, which made Jason laugh.

_[Alright, alright, you can go too. That way you can analyze all the telemetry, not just what you recorded off this range.]_

Gen had a decided spring in his step when he came down the ladder from his warmech as techs prepared to repair the damaged knee, almost bouncing up to Jason as he walked over in his macro bionoid. "I think you had fun," Jason chuckled.

"Oh yes I did," he agreed with a smile. "There's nothing more exciting for an old rigger like me than to face someone who can beat him, your Grace. Beating down my recruits in seconds isn't all that fun after a while."

"I can imagine," Jason nodded. "Well, unfortunately, this is where work separates us, Gen," Jason told him. "I have to talk to one of my scout ship captains, and I'm sure you wouldn't mind some rest. So I'll call in a transport to take you back to Prakka, and I'll do my best to be over there tomorrow to watch you and Kyva get back at it. That was so much fun to watch."

"It was even more fun to be doing it," he chuckled.

Jason walked Gen over to the transport that landed, one with a seat big enough for him, then he delinked from the macro bionoid after arranging to have it taken back to the barracks by the house—the only place it would fit—and linked to the bionoid he had in his office. He sat at his desk and had Chirk get hold of Captain Rudy Devovich, a captain of a KES scout ship, which was currently further away than any scout ship had ever gone. He was commanding a new class of scout ship, which was a refitted KMS heavy cruiser that was outfitted specifically for exo-galactic exploration. It was designed to be the first ship to arrive in a new galaxy, carrying all the equipment and supplies needed to open full exploration for the ships that came behind it, but also fully equipped for all scout ship activities for when it wasn't traveling to a new galaxy. The ship would arrive in a new galaxy, deploy the initial equipment needed to establish communications back to Karis and establish a foothold in the new galaxy, then it would explore the galaxy as the standard scout ships made their way there. And when it was time for a new galaxy to be explored, the ship would head out. The ships were designed to operate far, far away from home territory for months at a time, maybe even years, utilizing bionoids to allow the crew to enjoy some shore leave back on Karis to see their families and friends. It had enough cargo space to carry everything it needed for its mission, which was the main reason why they'd chosen a heavy cruiser hull for the new scout ship class. Unlike other scout ships, however, the new class of ship was heavily armed, including keeping the three particle beam arrays and plasma torpedo launcher which were standard equipment in a KMS heavy cruiser. The ship was more than equipped to fight its way out of a sticky situation, though standard KES procedure was to escape using the translight drive, to avoid combat if at all possible. But, if the ship couldn't escape for some reason, or came across a hostile ship that could chase it down, it was equipped to defend itself. Meya had decided to call the new class of ship the Vanguard class, and Rudy had rather cheekily named his the _Enterprise_, but Jason didn't mind all that much. It was a fitting homage to that beloved series to name the first of the Vanguard class scout ships after it. Jason got a holo of him just as he sat behind his desk. "Rudy," he greeted.

"Jayce, I'm surprised you waited this long to call," he smiled in reply, the rear of the bridge visible behind him, where three KES bridge crew were clustered around a hologram of the galaxy in which the scout ship was sitting, a globular galaxy known as G-112-171-B, which was a galaxy outside of their cluster. It was in the supercluster, the Greater Evanis String, and was about 172.8 _million_ light years away from the Milky Way, which was off the Andromeda side of the galactic cluster and with two other galactic clusters between them. It was chosen because it was a small galaxy on the far side of the edge of a galactic cluster with only 23 galaxies that were spaced far enough apart for the Consortium to really think hard about trying to make a galactic crossing. That would hopefully isolate the Consortium for a long, long time, both within that galactic cluster and make it virtually impossible for them to get back over to their cluster. From there, it would take them about 12,300 years to get back to Andromeda, and they'd have to pass through another galactic cluster and pass very close by another to do it. It had taken Rudy and the _Enterprise_ eight days to get there. That was how far away it was, it took the scout ship eight days to traverse the distance, when it could reach Andromeda in two hours.

"I'm surprised Cyrsi's not there with a bionoid looming over your shoulder," Jason noted, which made Rudy laugh.

"She has one down in Astrocartography," he grinned. "Getting into everything and making a nuisance of herself."

"Why am I not surprised. Alright, hit me with your initial report."

"The fact that we're talking means we have the comm array up and running. It's in flat space about 15,000 light years off the edge of the galactic rim," he began. "We got it up about two hours ago, before coming into the galaxy, and used the time setting it up to get some initial scans to select our arrival point in this solar system. It also means the arrays we set up near F-112-383-Q and D-81-395-A are also up and running, and we set up all the defenses around them. Kimdori SCM, drones, the whole shebang.

"We haven't had much time to do more than deploy the probes and launch the research outpost," he continued. "But so far, we've found no organized energy outputs that would hint at a spacefaring species within our scanning range. Our initial sweeps are showing a whole lot of potential terrestrial planets, though. As soon as the probes start reporting back, I'll have more to pass along. We've deployed the orbital outpost around planet four in this solar system, and we should have that up and running in just a few minutes."

"Did you scrape the paint launching it out of the belly bay?"

He chuckled. "Very nearly. It almost got stuck in the doors, but we managed to wrangle it out and get it into a stable orbit."

"Anything interesting or exciting while you were getting out there?"

"Nothing amazing, but we did log a curious gravimetric anomaly almost exactly halfway between Cluster D and Cluster F in the cosmic string," he answered. "There was something out there, but it was too far off our course to investigate, and besides, no way in hell I was going to drop out of hyperspace with 1,470% time dilation. It would have made getting here take about thirty years in subjective time," he said with a face. "The mass variance sensor suggested it was a fairly large rogue planet, and I'm of a mind to send that back to Myra and have her dispatch a scout ship to fly by the anomaly and launch some probes to investigate. A rogue planet sitting out in the flattest of flat space, hundreds of thousands of light years away from the closest galaxy? That would be worth the trip to check out. Just studying the effect of time dilation and potentially billions of years of exposure to absolute zero on the matter of the planet would be worth the trip."

"That does sound interesting. I'll tell Myra to do it."

"Works for me. That's about it, Jayce. I should have a more comprehensive report for you in about six hours, and I'm sure the council will want one too, so I'm preparing one for them as well. That meeting's in nine hours, that should be more than enough time for us to get back quite a bit of data about the sectors surrounding this one and some basic impressions about five sectors around this one."

"What's the system you're at like?"

"Pretty large, it has nineteen planets orbiting a binary, a white star about the size of Terra's sun and a red dwarf," he answered. "Three terrestrial planets, sixteen gas giants, and 281 moons, but none of them support life. Well, one moon is within Birkon tolerances, but that's about it. The big thing here is a supermassive gas giant that could be mined for heavy gases and metallic hydrogen."

"So, nothing super-exotic?"

"Hate to be a disappointment, but this system could be in our galaxy," he grinned. "The only thing exotic about this system is it'll take us eight days to get home from it."

"You're not coming back for two months," Jason chuckled.

"And I love it," he grinned widely. Rudy was exactly the kind of man to work in the KES, he had an insatiable wanderlust and an overpowering curiosity. "As soon as the outpost is up and running, we'll be moving into the next sector so we can get some better scans of the galaxy's interior. I'll see if I can't find something, you know, panoramic, and use that as the backdrop on the forward view holo as I give my report."

Jason laughed. "You have the soul of a movie director, Rudy," Jason told him. "I'll let you get back to business. I'm sure if you find anything really interesting, Cyrsi will let me know."

Rudy's face winked out, and a moment later, the lovely face of Myra appeared on a flat hologram in front of him. "Now what?" she demanded with a smile.

"Rudy sent you a report."

"I just talked to him like twenty minutes ago."

"I figured. What I'm calling about is the Stargate at Axis Three."

"It's there, they're in the process of linking it," she replied. Axis Three was a system in the Magnum Dwarf Stellar Supercluster. They selected it because it was in a central location within the tiny galaxy, and Axis III was life-sustaining, a temperate planet with 1.01 gravity, 1.6 pressure, with an atmosphere that was compatible with about 75% of species in the Confederation, due to a mixture of gases that was a bit unusual for a planet that supports life. And what made it better was that Axis II would support 12 different carbon dioxide-breathing species that couldn't live on Axis III, and Axis VII-D would support Birkons. That meant that about 90% of all Confederate species could survive on one of the planets or moons in the Axis system, which made it perfect as the Confederation's hub into the galaxy. The Stargate would be linked back to a Stargate at Terra, not at Karis, and Jason would officially open the galaxy up for exploration and colonization tonight, after the vote about the Board. "ETA is four hours."

"In time for the meeting," Jason mused.

"So, did anyone _not_ sign the treaty?"

"Nope," he answered. "And I'm sure they'll be a logjam of ships trying to go through when we authorize passage. So, where's Meya?"

"Bite my ass, Jayce," she barked, which made him laugh. Meya was on a field mission on another Vanguard class scout ship, which was in the D galactic cluster. They'd arrived there three days ago, and had sent back some pretty interesting data so far. They were going to stay for six more days, then come back, which was a three day trip. Then Meya would take over desk duty and Myra would get her chance to go out.

The twins nearly fought over who went first, at least until Meya tricked Myra into making a bet she couldn't win…which Myra was still fuming about. "You should have learned by now not to make bets with Meya, you silly girl. She played you like a rookie."

"I'll get my revenge on my treacherous sister when she gets back next takir," she promised, which made Jason laugh harder. "And I'm lucky, I'll be on the scout ship that goes to Cluster E."

"I'm almost jealous," he told her honestly. "When all this is over, I think I may take a ride on a Vanguard and go to another galactic cluster. Just to do it, just to see something so far away with my own eyes," he said musingly.

"You'd drive the ship's captain nuts."

"Who said there'd be one? I think I can command a scout ship," he replied lightly.

"Bullshit you will. That ring you wear doesn't entitle you to do anything you please," she retorted, and she was serious. "You pass the KES command course and put in the service time to qualify for a chair, and _maybe_ I'll entertain the idea. Until then, not just no, but _fuck_ no."

He chuckled. "That's what I'd better hear," he told her proudly. "I didn't put you in charge of the KES to kiss my ass, girl."

"You know how strange it is to sit here and talk about exploring other galactic _clusters_?" she said suddenly, putting her cheek in her hand and giving him a musing look. "I don't think this is where I would have ever dreamed I'd be just ten years ago."

"In the immortal words of one of Terra's greatest philosophers, Ferris Bueller, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

"I've never heard of him."

"I'd be surprised if you had," he said with a slight smile. "His greatest achievement was a day off."

The look she gave him made him lose it, and he burst into laughter. "Are you messing with me?" she asked, then she put a finger on her interface. "A _movie_?" she protested after no doubt searching for _Ferris Bueller_ on Civnet.

"You should watch it. Ferris Bueller is my hero," Jason told her. "I think you'd relate to him."

"Get off my comm, you dork," she accused, which made him laugh harder.

_[Jason, you need to delink. It's time for your treatment,]_ Songa reminded him over Civnet.

"Gotta go anyway, girl, time for a flesh growth treatment," he told her.

"Alright. Good luck, babe."

_[Chirk, I'm delinking for my treatment. I should be out about an hour.]_

_ [Understood, revered Hive-leader. I have two new items for you when you return.]_

_ [I'll tackle them when I get back.]_

Jason returned to his body—that was the way it felt anymore—and was wheeled down to a special treatment lab where they did flesh growth treatments for endolimbs. They weren't all that bad, really just boring more than anything else, but there was a little bit of discomfort involved. The newly grown flesh and tissue was very sensitive, so the barest touch on it was like having a vinegar-soaked cheese grater raked across it. Luckily he couldn't see what was going on due to a pair of screens set on either side of his head as he sat in the treatment chair, because he didn't think he'd want to see his skinless tissue and flesh.

The worst part was when it was over, when they wrapped the newly grown tissue in special bandages that almost looked like plastic wrap, made of a material that would dissolve into a liquid nutrient solution more or less just in time for the next treatment, before putting the protective cases back on to protect them from bumps and jars. The bandages themselves were painful enough, even when they used a pain inhibitor field, since they were being applied over brand new nerves that were still a bit overactive.

After that was done, he recovered about a half an hour as he was visited by Rann, Shya, Danelle, and Aria, who had just gotten out of school. Rann, Shya, and Danelle were preparing to go to their TK lessons with Mrar, and Aria was going to her telepathic training session with Ryn. Dera had picked them up and were escorting them, standing by the door with two Marine guards standing outside.

It said a lot that Aya was willing to let the Marines guard Jason inside the annex. Then again, it was inside the annex, which was a pretty secure place.

It was also part of Aya's general standing down of wartime protocols, allowing Jason and the other protected adults on the strip to roam around with much less direct oversight. Those were the times Jason enjoyed most, when he could get in a hovercar and go to work like anyone else without having to take a frigate, or without an entourage of guards escorting him everywhere. Aya did have guards where he was, but they didn't follow him everywhere. Shen and Suri were in the annex, but they were down the hall in a waiting room, allowing the Marine Guard to stand post at his door.

When the kids were on their way to lessons—and finally getting Amber to go home, since she found out how boring it was to lay in the bed with Jason linked to a bionoid and thus not paying her any attention—Jason linked back to his office bionoid and spent the rest of the afternoon clearing the paperwork that piled up while he was ignoring his duties. He read over the report that Rudy sent him after they got back some probe data, and it was looking more and more like they chose the right galaxy. The probes had found 1,249 terrestrial planets in the four sectors they were exploring—sectors in that galaxy were much smaller than in the home galaxy, so that was a pretty large number of planets—but still had not found any coherent energy patterns that would denote advanced civilizations. The science outpost was up and running, taking over for the scout ship as the repository for all probe data and data analysis, freeing up the _Enterprise_ to go out to the most promising planets and check them out…which was what scout ships were supposed to do.

That made him take a quick look over at Kosigi. There were currently three other Vanguard scout ships in service, the first of the production run, and there were 47 more in production. They were refitting KMS heavy cruisers into Vanguard scout ships in the short term to get some out there while others were being built from scratch, which was a process that took about 15 days. It mainly involved converting just about all available space inside the ship into science labs and installing a second mainframe purely for scientific analysis. The operational capabilities of the heavy cruiser weren't altered, which made them both KMS and KES ships, and they could pull them from the KES, put a military crew on board, and use them in combat with no issues…well, outside of the crew not having enough berthing to sleep. The crew for a Vanguard was 265 between the ship's operations crew and scientists, where a KMS heavy cruiser had a crew of 315. Since there was no fighter or exomech detachment on a Vanguard, and the Tark security detachment was much smaller on a Vanguard than a KMS ship, that was quite a bit of crew taken off the ship. A heavy cruiser had an element of four Wolf fighters and a squad of exomechs on board, and between the pilots, riggers, and ground crews, that added nearly 60 crew to the ship. The Tarks alone made a big difference, since there were 41 Tarks on a KMS heavy cruiser, a full platoon and its commander, but only 11 on a Vanguard, a single squad and the squad commander.

Given those ships would probably be mothballed after all the wars were over, Jason was quite happy to see them repurposed and put to good use.

Vanguards did have some military equipment on them, however. Each one carried four military variant KP-16 dropships for landing parties, two Gladiators, and two Knights for additional ship defense or use in highly dangerous planetside exploration, and 60 generic naval crew bionoids that could be activated from the Lake and provide additional hands for the crew, at least when the ship was in comm range. If it was out of biogenic commune range, then they couldn't link to the bionoids.

What made Vanguards unique among all ships in either the KMS or KES was that they also carried four of the brand new military variant Novas. MRDD had finally gotten around to converting the 1,400 year old Nova prototype sitting on Jason's landing pad into a viable military mecha, and it was perfect for being on a Vanguard. It was much smaller than a Wolf, so it took up less space. The wings, which were no longer the rear-set diamond shape and were now short, straight, forward-swept wings angled down by 18 degrees and curved along their inside edge, could be folded, which made it take up even less space in a landing bay. They'd also added two very small tailfins as well for additional aerodynamic stability, which were also angled, angled away from each other by 27 degrees off the vertical plane, and could also be folded to reduce the space it took up in storage. It was faster and more maneuverable than a Wolf in an atmosphere, which was where the KES projected it would be using the Nova most, it was heavily armed despite being so small, and its IP armor system made it just as rugged and durable as any Karinne mecha. Wolf fighters were superior in vector-based combat, but the Nova had a niche in the KES as its fighter of choice due to its much smaller size and ease of piloting. Anyone with a class 3 could pilot a Nova, where a Wolf required special training to fly...and having a Class 3 license was a requirement in the KES, so that meant that any member of the crew could fly it. MRDD had done a great job making the Nova as pilot-friendly as possible, allowing just about anyone to fly it, yet it could still be a nasty opponent in a dogfight when a trained fighter pilot was sitting in the cockpit. That versatility made the Nova perfect for the KES, which operated far from any kind of support and where every cubic tikra of cargo space inside the hull of its scout ships was important.

The Nova set itself apart from the Wolf in one other way. MRDD had installed CMS into it, making it a stealth fighter, but despite that, they'd managed to arm the _fuck_ out of it using the most recent advances in military weaponry. It was armed with two pulse cannons at the base of its wings and a tandem of a single-barrel rail cannon mounted along the bottom of the nose and nosecone, the bottom of the fuselage flared a little bit to make room for the barrel, and a modified Vindicator gatling disruptor cannon used mostly by Titan mecha mounted just over it, a smaller version with five barrels extending from the tip of the retracting nosecone, half-conical doors that hid the barrels and protected them when not in use. That gave the small fighter some considerable firepower, and that made it _dangerous_. Much like how a frigate was built around its particle beam, the Nova was built around its tandem nose weapons, which took up most of the non-engine internal space in the fighter. The pulse cannons at the base of the wings were almost afterthoughts, except for one little difference…the pulse generator was built so it could rotate and fire either from barrel arrays in the front, at the base of the wings, or in the _back_, at the base of the two tailfins added to the design. That let the small ship fire on fighters behind it in aerial combat, which was a critical defensive addition given that fighters in aerial combat couldn't rotate on an axis while moving in the same direction without suffering massive air resistance the way they could in vector-based space combat. MRDD had really done a great job on the Nova, giving it a great combo punch of raw firepower at short range and the ability to fire rail slugs at extreme range, along with rear-firing weapons to cover its ass if it came into an aerial dogfight scenario. It could carry drones or missiles on its wings as external equipment, but it had no space inside the fuselage for anything but the CMS and guns, there was no room for missile packs, not even room for shields. The fighter relied completely on its IP armor system for protection. And it couldn't carry external equipment and use its CMS unless that external equipment had its own CMS system.

MRDD's success miniaturizing some of the parts of a disruptor, which allowed them to redesign a Titan's Vindicator to fit on a Nova, had caused them to design a refit for Wolf fighters to install a more powerful version of a gatling disruptor in the nose of a Wolf, to further increase its firepower and make it even more nasty.

Jason was happy to see it. He loved his Nova, he flew it quite a bit just for the fun of it, and he was quite pleased to see MRDD finally convert the prototype into something extremely useful. And he was even happier that it was more or less exclusively designed for the KES, giving them something other than the scout ships that was _theirs_, not something that was just handed down to them from the KMS. Novas were designed and built for use in the KES, not the KMS, even though the KMS had already ordered 2,000 of them due to their CMS. Gia, the command officer that oversaw all frigates in the fleet, had seen use for them as fighter escorts for frigates on stealth missions, since they could also stealth, so she was the one that put in the order for them.

The other reason? With its wings folded, a Nova would just barely fit in the new belly bay configuration of a frigate, and would fit in the landing bay of the current frigates so long as there wasn't anything else in the bay. That gave a frigate the ability to carry a fighter instead of two zip ships or two cased plasma torpedoes, and when frigates were refitted to the new belly bay configuration, it would be able to carry two Novas.

That was going to happen. Naval Engineering had determined that it was a necessary refit given what it gave frigates, so a schedule was being drawn up to refit every frigate in the fleet to the new belly bay configuration. It was going to take a lot of work to do it, requiring large sections of the ship to all but be rebuilt, but it would be worth the work. It was a small change, but that change gave a frigate the ability to fire its torpedoes forward, and their combat simulations showed that that was _very_ important. It meant that the ship didn't have to turn to give an enemy the largest possible profile for them to shoot at to launch their torpedoes in the right direction, they could fire them head-on, where the frigate's silhouette was smallest. That small but significant change drastically increased a frigate's survivability in simulations where it was launching torpedoes. And since Jason's primary interest in all things military was making sure every single person in the KMS came home to their families at night, he was more than willing to pay the refit costs. If it protected his girls, he would spend the money on it.

He delinked from his office bionoid and linked back to his home bionoid in time to sit with his family as they ate dinner, then enjoyed playing with the girls and minding the babies as he waited for the council meeting. And it seemed that he'd barely come up out of his workshop before it was time for his final treatment of the day, and after that, it was time for the meeting.

Gau got them right to business, and everyone was suitably sober, given what they were there to discuss. Jason didn't really have much to inject into the debate, since everyone knew his position on the matter, so it became nearly three hours of more or less circular debate between the doves on the council, like Magran, Mo, and Shevatt, and the hawks like Assaba, Sk'Vrae, and Shakizarr, over the morality of killing the Board over orders they had yet to make. But Jason could tell that Magran, who was the usual leader of the more pacifistic members of the council, was really only raising the points of debate because it didn't sit well with him what they knew they had to do. Not many on the council relished the idea of it, but everyone, even Magran, knew it was the only way to stop an escalation of the war to ghastly proportions.

After nearly four hours, they finally put it on the floor for a vote. And in this, both Jason and Zaa had a vote despite being neutral observers, because it dealt with the war in which their forces were fighting. That was the distinction between Jason and Zaa and the other neutral observers, since they were members of the military alliance and thus had voting power in aspects that affected war and peace within the Confederation.

Just seconds before Gau was going to announce the results, however, Zaa put a hand on her memory band, her face blank. She then suddenly stood up. "If I may!" she said. "Cybi, access the feed coming in from E Chaio on Kraal's dedicated crypto channel!"

A hologram appeared in the space between the tiers and the Speaker's lectern, and they saw what Kraal was sending them. It was the capitol skyscraper on the planet, and the top of it was on fire. Jason knew the building well, and he realized that there was a gaping hole where the Board Room was located within the building.

"Kraal sends this report. Someone has bombed the capitol complex on E Chaio. His report is that the entire Board has been assassinated, and he has confirmed it. The trackers and spiders they had on the Board all report back that all 153 members of the Board are dead."

"Seems someone beat us to it," Kreel noted grimly. "I guess either someone took issue with the war, or they were looking for a promotion in the Benga style."

"Either way, it renders our vote a moot point," Gau said calmly.

"Did the Kimdori do that, Denmother?" Enva asked.

"We did not, there was no reason to do so with the spiders successfully deployed," she answered. "I will command Kraal that his primary objective is to find out who was behind it. We must know quickly, so we know how to approach negotiations with the Board's successors. If you will excuse me, I must speak to Kraal immediately," she said, then she hurried from the Hall of Peace, towards a secure room set up for Zaa to communicate with her Gamekeepers.

"It could have been a lieutenant in a corp trying for the big chair, or it could have been a military officer mad about the decision they were about to make," Dahnai noted. "I think Zaa has the right idea. We need to know who did it and why before we talk to them again. They could have been blown up because they were going to prosecute the war, or blown up because they _weren't_. We need to know."

"I suggest we recess until the Denmother can gather information to present to us," Gau declared.

That was approved quickly, and the council bionoids sank back beneath the floor, except for Jason's. He headed for Zaa's secure room, and Zaa let him in. It was a very simple room with a computer terminal with a chair in front of it, a single chair, so Jason stood by the Denmother as she regarded a flat hologram of Kraal over the terminal before her. "Repeat that for our cousin, Kraal," Zaa ordered.

He nodded. "Cousin. Thus far I have very little information. We barely know more than the Syndicate's security forces. Someone managed to smuggle a bomb into the Board Room and set it off. It did considerable damage to the building, and killed the entire Board, many of their guards, and some of their assistants and flunkies that occupy the offices on that floor. Right now, the entire Syndicate government on E Chaio is in chaos as news of the assassination reaches the lower tiers of their bureaucracy. If past events like this are any indication, it may be a month before the Board reforms."

"That's not good," Jason growled. "What about the deployment? Is that still on?"

"With the Board dead, the military has a degree of autonomy until a new Board is seated," he replied. "And all the indications from my packmates and our sources inside the military high command building is that the military command staff was very much against the invasion. It is entirely possible one of them is behind the attack, to stop the Board from causing catastrophic damage to the Syndicate. But to answer your question, with the Board dead, it is highly unlikely that the military commanders will launch the invasion. But that is only a prediction, we will have to watch and see what happens."

"Sounds like we'd better warm up the contingency plan in case they launch the invasion," Jason grunted. "Just in case."

"Prudence is always wise, cousin," Zaa agreed. "And there is little we can do but wait for your report, Handgroom. Cousin, I suggest you delink and get some rest. I'll call you if Kraal learns anything."

"I will, as soon as I warn the command staff," he replied.

It didn't take long. He delinked from his Hall of Peace bionoid after putting it back in its chair and merged directly to the command mainframe in the command center, then relayed his warning to Shey, who was still doing third watch in the command center. She'd been offered a promotion to command a line vessel, but she seemed to be quite content in her role. After that, he delinked back to his hospital room, which seemed empty and lonely. He'd convinced Amber to go home, it was too late for the kids to be up, Jyslin was at home asleep.

Despite his mind being a blitz of activity and worry, the fact that he was bored lured him to sleep.

The next morning was filled with meetings, meetings, and more meetings.

Since Kraal was still digging for the culprit behind the assassination of the Board, they met that morning to discuss the other side of Andromeda, the Consortium. They'd had two days to consider Jason's plan, and they spent the morning debating the idea. What surprised Jason was that Sk'Vrae didn't throw an absolute hissy fit over the idea. There was a matter of blood between the Collective and the Consortium, and Jason had expected Sk'Vrae to demand her pound of flesh from the Consortium as penance for them violating the treaty signed between the two. It turned out that Sk'Vrae felt that the humiliation of the Consortium having to abandon their homes and become unwilling colonists appealed sufficiently to her sense of justice to let the matter slide…at least for now. Then again, Sk'Vrae probably didn't want everyone else thinking for too long about the fact that the Consortium had initially had a partnership with the Collective to conquer Karis and share their technology.

That was a long time ago, ancient history, and not even Jason really cared about it anymore. Sk'Vrae had seen how wrong she'd been, she'd apologized, and now the Collective and the Karinnes were nearly inseparable allies. The Collective, Imperium, and Karinnes were the three original founders of the Confederation, and in a way, they were essentially a single political entity now. Sk'Vrae was Dahnai and Jason's most stalwart ally, they were hers, and there was a great deal of mutual respect and friendship between the three of them. The three civilizations were bound together by tangled webs of political and economic strings that were impossible to untangle, and Jason would not be surprised if, some day in the future, the Collective and Imperium merged to become a single empire, and do it _peacefully_. There were Urumi in the Imperium, and surprisingly, there were now Faey in the Collective, Faey who had moved to the four systems the Karinnes administered with the full understanding that they would become Collective citizens when the systems were returned to the Collective. Those Faey had already made it clear they were willing to do that by becoming dual citizens of both the Collective and the Imperium. Aurigae, Bellar, and the other two systems were their _homes_, no matter which empire laid claim to them, and they were not going to leave them.

All in all, though, the council as a whole was amenable to Jason's plan. They spent the morning discussing the specifics of it, refining it and making a few changes, and just after lunch, they voted on the proposal. It passed 157-1-1, with only Sk'Vrae voting against it, which was a purely political vote. She didn't want possible grumbling in the Collective over voting to assist an empire that had a matter of blood with the Urumi. The lone abstention was Damu Prakat of the Cordarra, a Coalition empire, and he did that purely for technical reasons.

After the vote was finalized, they set the task of negotiating the agreement with Mesaiima and Ethikk, who would use the plan as a framework to negotiate a treaty with the Consortium. Once that matter was retired, Jason got Gau's attention. "All the preparations have been completed in the Magnum Dwarf Supercluster," Jason announced. "The Stargate there is in the process of linking to the gate at Terra as we speak. When it's finished, we'll be officially opening up the galaxy to exploration and colonization. The system where the Stargate is located was chosen because the planets and moons there can support 90% of Confederation species. We've named it Axis, and that system is the established neutral hub system for the galaxy. Cyrsi will be sending all of you a file explaining the rules and procedures for building on Axis, but to summarize, every empire in the Confederation may claim one plot of land on one of the planets or moons that will support a city you wish to build there, and each empire may place one orbital station in orbit somewhere in the system. You may use that city and orbital station as your hub of operations in the exploration and colonization of the galaxy. That claim will be sovereign territory for your empire, with one exception. Each of your claims will hold a satellite office from the Bureau of Exploration and Annexation located within the claim to help you expedite any claims you decide to make within the galaxy, and an office of the Bureau of Logistics to assist in setting up supply lines and trade routes. Outside of those two Confederation offices, the plot will be under your complete control," he told them. "The rest of the surface area of the planets and moons will be considered a neutral protectorate of the Confederation itself, administered by the Bureau of Resource Management. The Terrans, with assistance from the Academy, are currently building a small city on every habitable planet and moon in the Axis system to serve as the main administration hubs for the Confederation in that galaxy, which will have the same rules as Terra, existing as a purely neutral entity where all are welcome. The rest of the planets and moons will be left alone as a nature preserve, at least for now. So, you will own your city on the surface, there will be a city on the planet or moon where you make your claim to serve as the Confederation's hub holding the various bureaus that serve its members, and the rest of the planets and moons will be left inviolate to be enjoyed by all visitors for tourism. An empire can claim a plot up to a maximum of 10,000 square kathra, that plot must be contiguous, and plots will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. The plots claimed by the Bureau have already been made, and the Terrans are as we speak building the administration buildings that will manage the Confederation presence in the galaxy. I'd suggest that all of you look over the maps the Bureau of Exploration and Annexation sent to you and decide where you want to stake your initial claim in the Axis system," he called. "When you've made your choice, just let them know and they'll establish your claim."

"When will the Stargate be linked?" Shakizarr asked.

"In about two standard hours," he answered.

"Then I think a two hour recess is in order so we can organize our initial scout forces and study the maps," Gau suggested. "And I believe it's about time for your medical treatment, isn't it, Jason?"

"That was about an hour ago, and Songa's starting to look a little mad," he noted, which made Gau chuckle.

"Then we should also recess so Jason can have his treatment done."

They finished up a moment later, and Jason delinked to an empty room. _I'm done, Songa, _he sent. _Sorry we ran over time._

_ I was about to forcibly delink you,_ she retorted. _I'll send an orderly to bring you to the treatment lab._

_ Bully._

_ In my own annex, dear, you better believe I'm a bully._

The treatment session took about an hour, and Jason could see some actual progress when he finally decided to look. They'd grown all the interior tissue within the endolimb's artificial muscles, lacing his living flesh in with the artificial muscles and bones, and they were now growing the tissue between the muscles and the skin they'd grow later. The skin growth process took the most time due to the different layers that had to be done one at a time.

Tomorrow, they'd turn on the endolimbs for the first time, after they grew the first layer of skin over them.

"That looks like I'm glad I haven't eaten lunch yet," Jason noted clinically as he looked at his unskinned flesh. The nerves and blood vessels were visible along the surface.

"It's the finished product that counts, your Grace," the lab tech told him, giving him a smile. "And speaking of lunch, the chart shows that you missed your scheduled meal."

"I was in council," he replied.

"Well, we'll have to increase your calorie intake, or you'll be behind schedule," she noted. "I hope you're hungry, your Grace."

He had quite an intimidating platter in the room when he got back, which he ate using his telekinesis rather than being spoon fed like a baby, then more or less had to go right back into council, linking back to his Hall of Peace bionoid. Three empires had already laid claims to plots on Axis III, Dahnai, Sk'Vrae, and Kreel, Voss had laid a claim on a plot on Axis II for the Crai, and they watched a holo of a large swarm of scout vessels from various empires moving through the gate and into the other galaxy as soon as the gate was fully linked. The Bureau of Exploration and Annexation had a small orbital station at Axis III to serve as a temporary facility, and it was that station that more or less let the scouts jump out to begin their exploration.

Jason was happy to see it. So long as the members of the Confederation felt they could expand peacefully through exploration, it would keep them from trying to expand by making war on their neighbors.

They spent a couple of hours further discussing the Consortium, more or less trying to do Mesaiima's job for her, and Jason was mildly amused by her very diplomatic brushing off of the rest of the council. But Jason did get pulled into it when they asked exactly where they were going to send the Consortium. "I have a research vessel in Cluster F, one of the new Vanguard class scout vessels," he said, having Cyra put up a map of the galactic clusters in the Greater Evanis String, which highlighted the cluster. "It took them eight days to get there, and so far, the scans look favorable. It's a small galaxy on the edge of the cluster, they've found quite a few terrestrial planets, but haven't found any organized sentient species yet. If that holds true, that's where we're going to propose we send the Consortium."

"Are there any Confederate scientists on that ship?" Shevatt asked.

"Not that one," he answered. "It's not there for standard research. I think the first scout ship carrying a complement of Confederation scientists is scheduled to arrive at Cluster J in about a 41 standard hours. At least what's Cluster J now. Astrocartography is preparing a new standard mapping system for the galactic clusters in the Greater Evanis String, because we're going to run out of letters in the Faey alphabet really fast."

"Are you sending any scouts out really, really far?" Enva asked curiously.

"Well, the Vanguard scout ship _Magellan_ departed for a cluster in the opposite string in the formation four days ago," he said, scratching his cheek. "As I think I've explained, the galactic clusters in the Evanis formation are arrayed in a pair of strings twisted around each other in double helix, almost like the helix of a strand of DNA. The _Magellan_ is heading for the closest galaxy in the _other_ string, and it's scheduled to arrive in about 21 days. If I remember right, it's carrying a full complement of Confederation scientists in addition to our own."

"Twenty one days of continual travel through hyperspace to a destination on the other side of the _cosmic string_. Just ten years ago, that would have been unthinkable," Magran mused.

"Science is the foundation of all truth, Magran, and truth changes everything," Observer A said, an ancient Ruu saying. "I've had to all but put down a riot over which Ruu scientists would get slots aboard Karinne scout ships."

"I think there's at least three on every one on the board," Jason chuckled.

"The Karinnes honor the cause, and the cause is just," A said with a smile.

"It's a sobering thing to think about," Master Mo said. "That we are sending ships out so far. To think of the wonders they may discover," he said. "But what's more important, the sheer number of worlds they can visit. Such reach…it's a wise thing to keep that tightly controlled, your Grace," he said as he looked at Jason. "We could plunge the entire string into war through a single rash action. Such things are best left to the one empire in the Confederation that values peace above all things, even as they are the most prepared to protect themselves. Only such an empire can safely explore the string without causing permanent damage, or endangering us all."

That caused a bit of an awkward silence in the chamber, since most of the rulers were not happy at all with the fact that Jason was rabidly against sharing drive technology. And Jason was smart enough not to say a word.

Luckily, he was saved by Kraal. _[Kraal has something,]_ Cybi warned both him and Zaa. _[He relays he can present it directly to the council.]_

_ [That's Denmother's call,]_ Jason answered.

_[My Handgroom knows what can and cannot be said before council,]_ she injected through her memory band. _[Cybi, connect him to the council holo immediately.]_

_ [I'll tell him, Denmother.]_

Gau was a bit surprised when a flat hologram of Kraal appeared in the well between the tiers and the lectern. "Excuse the abruptness, Speaker, distinguished rulers of the Confederation, but I was ordered to present any information I acquire immediately," he said urbanely.

"You have something, master Kimdori?" Gau asked.

"We've learned the identity of the group behind the assassination of the Board," he nodded. "The order came from the command staff of the Syndicate military, and the bombing was carried out by one of the honor guard. The assassin was himself assassinated hours ago to cover the command staff's tracks."

"Are they attempting a coup?" Dahnai asked.

He shook his head. "The Syndicate military knows that they'd never be able to hold power if they tried. From what my pack has uncovered, the order came because the military believes that sending the entire fleet to our galaxy would deal severe damage to the Syndicate, and possibly weaken them to the point where the Consortium can go on the offensive and push back into Andromeda." He glanced to the side, then looked at a handpanel that was handed to him. "Additional information, honored council. The _military_ is broadcasting a cease fire offer to us. With the Board dead, they have some autonomy to prosecute the war as they see fit until a new Board is seated. It seems that they've decided to sue for peace, at least in the short term. The new Board may override their decision."

"I'd bet if they do, that new Board will meet with a very unfortunate accident as well," Kreel said without much humor.

"I would not take that bet, High Councilor," Kraal nodded. "If they were willing to kill one Board, they will kill another."

"A fact that the new Board very well may have in the back of their minds," Mesaiima noted. "But this works in our favor. I think we should accept that cease fire offer."

"It's a moot point, all CCM assets except those at Atrovet have withdrawn back to Prakka," Shakizarr said. "They're only holding Atrovet long enough to move all the Syndicate prisoners here to the moon so the Syndicate can take them back."

"Then we may need to negotiate about Atrovet, but everything else will be simple," Alros said.

"What about the fleets? Are they still gathering?" Dahnai asked.

"One moment," he said, looking to the side. A few seconds later, another Kimdori hand came into the holo as it handed him another handpanel. "No. Latest intelligence shows that the military is disbursing the fleets at their staging points, sending most of them back to the Consortium front. They're standing down," he surmised.

"A show of faith to us, or maybe a delaying tactic in case the new Board tries to restart the war," Holikk mused. "And it expedites our need to negotiate with the Consortium."

"I agree. I must begin that task as soon as possible," Mesaiima said. "Else the Syndicate crushes the Consortium before they can retreat."

"I'll arrange it so you can communicate with Captain Devovich, the captain of the ship exploring the galaxy we're considering ceding to them. That way you can get updates on his progress."

"Rudy?" she asked, which surprised him a little as he nodded. "He's such a nice Terran."

"I didn't know you knew him, Madam President."

"We met a few months ago, during a summit on Karis," she replied. "He was in the KES headquarters when I was given a tour. And I believe I need to delink so I can prepare for the negotiation," she called. "I'll have an aide observe in my stead. Good day to you all, my friends." With that, her bionoid stopped moving, and it lowered down into its storage space under the floor. A hologram representing one of her aides appeared in her spot.

"Unless Master Kraal has any other information," Gau prompted, "I think we can all follow the President's example. That will give us time to study this new information and discuss its import with our advisors."

"I have nothing further, your Majesty," Kraal answered. "As soon as my pack gathers additional data, I will inform the council immediately. And I will present a comprehensive report on these data and our analysis of it at your next scheduled meeting."

"I will put you on the calendar, Kraal," Gau told him. "You are dismissed."

He nodded his head respectfully, and the hologram winked out. "I move that we adjourn until our regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow to give the Kimdori time to unearth more information and allow Mesaiima time to prepare for her task. I believe that it's also prudent for us to schedule a vote on accepting the cease fire offered by the Syndicate military, if only to reassure them of our intent. The time will give us all the opportunity to reflect so we may make an informed decision," he intoned, showing his Haumda tendency to approach any decision slowly and carefully. "I move we adjourn until 10:30 universal standard time tomorrow."

Barely two minutes later, Jason was delinked from his Hall of Peace bionoid and linked to his office bionoid, reading the report Kraal sent him on the information. It did look like the Syndicate's military command staff was moving to protect the Syndicate from its own leaders, and doing it in typical Benga fashion, by killing them off. Kraal had no hard intelligence yet on how sincere they were, but their actions did show that they were more interested in the protection of Syndicate territory than prosecuting the war.

It was a hopeful sign. Between this sudden turn of events and the Consortium all but begging for help, it made him a little optimistic that maybe, just maybe, the war with Andromeda may be coming to a close. If things went well, the Consortium would be starting over in a new galaxy, the Syndicate would be too afraid of trying to go to war with the Milky Way over the spanking that they'd received…and they'd be too busy playing with their new toys, the last of Consortium territory they'd yet to conquer. It was his hope that the new Board would be more interested in their own pockets than settling the grudges of their predecessors.

Then…he wasn't sure. Perhaps the Confederation would stay together, perhaps not. He had the feeling that some empires would leave it once the threat was ended, either because of their culture, like the Jun, their ambitions, like the Prakarikai, their pride, like the Verutans, or their allegiances, like the Coalition. Or perhaps all of them would stay in for the trade opportunities, and to keep an eye on what the other empires were doing.

One thing he knew for certain that was while the rest of the Confederation wound down from a wartime footing, the House of Karinne would be building itself up.

Secretly.

When the other empires left Kosigi, the House would be taking that space back over, and Jason intended to build a very large, very powerful, and very _secret_ fleet within Kosigi. The drives meant that he could hide those ships all over the string, send them out on exploration missions to keep them concealed, making sure that the Confederation never saw more than he was willing to allow them to see, hiding the house's true strength. His intention was to build a fleet that could hold its own against the entire Confederation, to defend Karis and the secrets of the house.

The drives. He knew that someone was going to make a play for the drives. He knew it was coming. And when it did, he wanted to be ready. The technology was too alluring, too irresistible for someone _not_ to try. The dreams of spreading their empire across entire galactic clusters was going to drive someone to do something irredeemably stupid, and when that day came, Jason wanted to be ready to smack them down.

He wasn't sure why he felt that way, but he did. He didn't want to do it, but he had to protect the universe from an empire that would misuse the technology, spread war and chaos across the cosmos. Now more than ever, the oaths of the Karinnes _mattered_, to protect races and civilizations millions and millions and millions of light years away from an aggressive empire that the Karinnes had had a hand in arming to the teeth and equipping with systems and technology that would make them a major threat to any but the most highly advanced civilizations. The Imperium alone now had the technology to conquer just about any empire that didn't have Confederation standard technology minimum, and had the ambition and the ruthlessness to do it. Much as he loved Dahnai, he did not for a second think that she wouldn't sally forth from Draconis and spread war and chaos across the entire galactic cluster if he was not there to rein her in.

He would not allow another Syndicate to rise, especially since the Karinnes had helped arm and equip them.

He knew the risks. If the rest of the Confederation found out about his plan, discovered the true size and power of the fleet he intended to build, it was going to risk everything. They may think he intended to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, who were thwarted by the Third Civil War maybe just years before they moved to take over the Imperium. They would all believe that he was building his intimidating fleet to _conquer_, not _protect_, and that would spur an arms race as they moved to protect themselves against the Karinne threat.

But he saw no other real option. To protect the secret of the drives, to protect his house, and to protect the universe _from_ his house, he felt he had no choice but to militarize, to build up an army and navy so powerful and intimidating that nobody dared try to steal their secrets.

Koiri Karinne. Jason leaned back, then rotated the chair and looked out the window behind his desk. Maybe that was what Koiri Karinne was thinking when she ordered the prototype ships built, developed the plans for the Gladiator and the predecessor to the Wolf fighter. Maybe he was unwittingly following in her footsteps, thinking that he was _protecting_ the house, when in fact he was endangering it. Maybe she saw the Third Civil War coming and had tried to prepare for it by building a house fleet to protect Karis from both sides, but it had broken out before the Karinnes were ready. And to prevent either side from gaining the secrets behind those ships, she had hidden them within Kosigi and allowed the Merranes to destroy the planet…to protect the Imperium from the legacy of the House of Karinne.

There was no way to know, no way to tell. The records Koiri kept were destroyed with the CBIMs when the Merranes obliterated the planet's surface. Her personal journals weren't backed up with Cybi for some strange reason, so there was no telling what her motivations were.

Either way, they were committed to this now. He'd already ordered Dellin to build the ships, and Kumi was bitching about the money they were going to spend on the project.

It had to be done. But he didn't have to like it.

But, at least now he could see a path out of the darkness. The Syndicate wanted peace, the Consortium wanted to escape to a place where neither of their rivals would ever bother them again. And while neither of those may last very long, as far as Jason was concerned, even a single day of peace was worth the effort. At home…well, he wasn't sure. He'd have to wait and see, see if the lure of peaceful expansion and the promise of peaceful prosperity was worth more to the empires of the Confederation than glory and conquest.

He could only hope.

_Thus ends the story of _Retribution_._

_In the next story, _Revolution_,_

_the Karinnes find themselves_

_facing upheaval and strife_

_both in Andromeda_

_and at home as the_

_consequences of the_

_Confederation's war_

_ against the Syndicate surface._

_And there will be other stories to tell._


End file.
